Anthony Malloy

There’s a book store on Chapel St in Windsor, down near the railway station, that has a cat who loves to sleep in the window. The Astor, that magnificent cinema, is made all the more perfect because it has a cat called Marzipan. I’m over the moon that Between Coffees now has an office cat; our very own Bella.

Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to work in a place with a resident cat. Now I work from home I’ve finally got my wish. I noticed that Bell would climb behind the (now gone) second desk and settle down on top of a cardboard box to nap. With the recent redesign of my office there’s now a lovely spot in the window where I can put a cat bed. It took her a day or two to warm to the idea but now, as long as I’m working at my desk, she’ll come in, spend ten minutes tenderising the outer ring and then curl up for a good nap.

Every office needs a cat.

The lucky guy I am I was given money by lots of people for my birthday . I’ve been keeping it in my account until I could think of something I wanted to spend it on. I didn’t want to buy tech ‘cause that’s just going to be replaced in a couple of years. I’m not in to jewellery or watches so that was out and I wanted it to be something I wouldn’t normally buy.

This week, almost five months after the day, I found something. A brand spanking new bbq. It’s something we’ll use a lot, but is special ‘cause I’d never normally spend this much on a barbie and with care it should last a very long time. Next years GF bbq should rock, if I get enough practice. Who knows, I may even be able to leave cooking until later ‘cause I’ve got more space.

Thanks to everyone who contributed but most of all thanks to my amazing wife who spent two hours on this rainy afternoon out in the garage putting The Beast together. My love, you really are amazing.

I was incredibly happy today when we managed to pick up one of Aldi’s mega bargains (no Rob, don’t worry, it’s not beer) this morning. It’s my last birthday present from my 40th, what I’m spending my birthday money on, but it needs some construction so I’ll wait until we Rae builds it before announcing it.

However, that’s not why I’m writing. It;’s a fairly heavy box and a guy who was buying one too asked if I needed a hand. “Thanks mate.” I said, “I’ll just wheel it outside while you deal with yours.” No problem until I had to turn a gentle sloping corner and the box slid off. Bugger, I’ll just lift it back on. So I reached down to pull it up.

That’s when my shoulder went ‘pop’. And that’s when the pain started.

Sigh, it may end up being a very expensive birthday present after all.

Mr Henry got to do a cut and paster with Rita today.

Poor Daisy and Roger met with horrible accidents this morning. Luckily nurses Albert and Kennedy were on hand to apply bandages and band aids.

I’ve had a JB Hi Fi voucher sitting in my wallet for ages now, it came from a survey I did. I haven’t found anything I wanted spend it on but today I though I’d stop by and check out the new JB in Sunshine. I wandered by the iPads, had a look at the amps and was about to leave when I noticed a NAS (Mum, it’s basically a hard drive that anyone on the network can access) sitting on the shelf. Hmmm. $299, with my voucher that would take it down to $199.

I took out my phone and checked the price on www.staticice.com.au to see if it was good. Landmark had the exact same model for $199 so I tracked down a salesperson (a challenge in itself) and showed them the price. He ummed and ahhed, said it was below their cost. I asked him what he could do it for. $199 was his response. So take away my voucher and for the princely sum of $99 we now have a fantastic little NAS for our out local backups and media storage, I managed to spend the voucher before it expired and I proved yet again that my phone is marvel.

We’ve just a had a visit from Nana Lois and Peter. Nana stayed for two whole nights and the kids were most excited they got to see all three Nanas in one day yesterday. They may have been a little over excited because they’ve crashed today in a rather spectacular fashion.

On the walk to the park yesterday afternoon Nana Lois taught Bert a new song.

Been a long day already and there’s still a way to go.

One of the reasons I’ve been absent lately is that I’m going through an insanely busy time with my web design business. For the past few weeks I haven’t had time to do anything but sit at this computer and juggle five or so sites at a time. It’s a good situation to be in, far better than the alternative, and it’s time to make that hay ‘cause when the sun is shining in January nobody is thinking about their web site needs.

Anyway, just to show I have been busy here is the first of the sites to reach launch, TreeTop Toy Shop.

As always, if you know someone who needs a site, feel free to share.

I know, I’ve been a bit busy. Moo just popped in to the office to remind me there is life beyond the PC.